Unguarded Moments
by GleeGeneration23
Summary: In which David is the one who falls through a portal with Emma in Season 2. Au Daddy Charming. Just Emma's scenes in the first half of Season 2.
1. If Tomorrow Never Comes

**Hi, so here is another OUAT Story again this is a little plot bunny I thought of when re-watching Season 2. Unlike my other stories including the other one published with this, this one is not a long one and will instead be ten chapters. This story also only deals with the Emma scenes in the Enchanted Forest and nothing to do with Storybrooke as I want my focus to be the Daddy Charming part of this story.**

 **Disclaimer-Nothing is mine.**

 **Also spelling and grammar is not my strongest suit so therefore any inaccuracies and I apologise.**

 **Nothing is mine please read and review and let me know what you think.**

* * *

Unguarded Moments.

In which David is the one who falls through a portal with Emma in Season 2. Au Daddy Charming. Just Emma's scenes in the first half of Season 2.

Chapter 1-If Tomorrow Never Comes.

* * *

In which Emma tried to hide her feelings towards her parents and she and David fall down the rabbit hole.

If tomorrow never came, Emma Swan would not be happy. She had already been through enough today and if this turned into some sort of magical day where everything was repeated then she was going to commit murder. Because today had already been hard enough without the added bonus of the curse being broken.

Henry had died .

There was no getting around it. Emma had watched her son's lifeless body. It was the first time since coming to Storybrooke she could admit to herself now (now that Henry was alive) that she could have possibly emphasised with Regina. The Evil Queen might be the cause of all of this pain and suffering but Emma had known in her own disturbing way at least until she had shown up-the older woman had loved Henry and had felt the same pain Emma had felt when they had seen his body.

And then the baby that she had given up had come back to life by the strongest type of magic there was in the world.

Love.

True love.

Sounded like something out of Harry Potter to Emma but she wasn't going to start complaining now.

Well, not about Henry being alive.

But she sure as shit was screaming and shouting in her head.

Because Henry had been right and there had been a curse and her roommate was her mother and the man that she had, had an affair with (whom Emma had decidedly not liked at all in the last few months) was her father.

She needed a drink. Like a really strong drink.

Neal had made really strong drinks.

Oh she wasn't going down that road today. That was for another day in the future.

Hopefully never.

Instead Emma forced herself to take a deep breath. Night had fallen across Storybrooke. The town was a mess, children who had woken up this morning with a name and an identity and a family they had known for twenty-eight years were now confused and missing in some cases fearing their parents or Regina or the custody battles coming. Her parents had spent most of the day sneaking glances out of the corner of their eyes at her whenever she wasn't really looking in their direction and she was willing to bet that she would be the topic of discussion between the two of them for a long time.

Henry was with Ruby but looking back Emma wasn't sure if that was such a good move in itself. Her mother might think that Ruby had her powers of wolf-shifting under control but Emma didn't think she could live through another trip to the hospital so soon. Instead she decided to turn back to the matter at hand, the dark wraith thing that Gold (who was now the most powerful practitioner of magic that had ever lived—that had caused Regina to snort—according to her parents) had conjured to take Regina's soul. Emma wouldn't have cared if it wasn't for the fact that Henry did and that was enough for her.

She remembered her father's (oh God!) comment about how Regina was the one who had the problem not her and gritted her teeth. If David had a problem with her choices in life and one of them being to help Regina then that was his problem and not hers. She had enough to deal with without being judged by a man who had only remembered he was her father since this afternoon and had caused her both grief and anger over the last few months. If he didn't like it he could go, she told herself sternly. She wouldn't mind at all. Emma Swan had survived twenty-eight years without her parents she wasn't going to fall apart now she had them. In fact she was too angry to fall apart.

Just don't ask her who she was angry at.

She gave the hat to Regina making a mental note to apologise to Jefferson when she saw him (because she had thought he was mad before but now…well…) and the dark haired woman took it. Something crackled in the air around them. Emma could feel it but she wasn't sure if anyone else could.

If felt (dare she say it?) like magic.

Regina began spinning the hat which moved like a life of it's own as the door to the Town Hall slammed open and the dark soul sucker flew into the room looking for the one woman who it had been summoned to kill.

Emma made another mental note to rake Gold over the coals for this.

It had been going alright she thought dodging another blow. She didn't want to admit it but they could do with the Evil Queen's magic coming to out right about now because there was only so much hairspray and fire could work when guns and bullets couldn't. She had managed to get the wrath near the hat long enough for the magic to stark sucking it into the velvet darkness that was this other realm trapped inside.

Actually it was pretty cool she had to admit taking a second to breath.

That was all she got. A second.

Because the wrath thing was not going to go quietly it seemed. Emma felt it's darkness reached out and grab her. Was it her imagination or was it real—that her skin turned cold when it touched her and panic set in for the first time since the curse had been broken.

And then the thing for lack of a better word, _yanked_ at her and she was falling into the blackness with it the magic around her compressing her until every bone in her body hurt and she hit something heavy. Whatever it was it knocked her out immediately.

Her last conscious thought was of her son.

* * *

Emma was alive.

Emma was alive.

Emma was alive.

It kept repeating over his head time and time again as if he couldn't believe it. His daughter, his little baby girl was alive. It was still something he could not get his brain around. With both David Nolan's memories and his own he found he could not reconcile his memories of that tiny baby to the grown up, golden haired woman who had until recently looked at him as if he was a type of pond scum.

But she was alive and he found that he wouldn't mind her looking at him like that if it meant that she was alive. If she never wanted a father that was ok too. She was _alive._

All he had known before he had died the first time was that she had gone. All he had, had in that moment was his hope and that had not been much he could remember now when there had been so much darkness around what should have been the happiest moments of his and Snow's lives as a married couple. The kingdom had been at peace for a time, they had been married, expecting a child.

And in the space of an hour, _that woman,_ had taken it from him.

Was it so wrong if he wanted that wraith thing to succeed? Regina had taken _everything_ from him and was acting like she had been the one hard done by.

But letting Regina die would be admitting that he was a different man than he had been. Granted he had been the one pushing for her death a long time ago but he had regretted it as soon as his wife had pointed it out to him. He had regretted many things after he had done them he could remember now.

David took a deep breath looking around. If it hadn't been for his grandson then he wouldn't be here. He could admit that much to himself even as Emma handed Regina the hat. Somewhere down the line Regina had been a good mother to Emma's son. She might have almost killed him but David knew the troubles had started when he had woken up, when Henry had brought Emma to town and Storybrooke had become infected with the magic it had been starving for.

His daughter was alive. He could deal with this and then Regina and then they could start with a plan that would stop the town from cascading into complete panic. The good news was that they had an opening. Regina's magic was still not back yet and while Rumplestilskin did have his back the presence of the woman lurking in the back room and that comment he had once made about how he had, had a flicker of light in an ocean of darkness might buy them even more time to deal with the two of them. How he didn't know but that was tomorrow's problem.

If it ever came.

The wraith came looking for Regina who had finally (with Emma's help) got that damned Hat spinning. The portal was growing wild and strong and with some help from him and his wife it was slowly going towards the mass sucking it in to an eternal darkness. Victory was on the tip of his tongue and then he thought his stomach curdling with anger at the sight of the wild, blazing look on his worst enemies face-they could deal with Regina once and for all.

And that was promptly the moment where it all went to shit.

The tendrils of darkness reached out and snagged around Emma's leg. Emma swore her eyes wide with panic and the magic around them made the whole building quake in something that made Regina look up in surprise. But David didn't have time to wonder what kind of nefarious plan that woman was plotting now. He had bigger things to worry about.

It wasn't even something he thought about. It was an instinct, long left dormant and slacking inside of him now rearing his head. The beast inside of him screaming and howling to get to his daughter before this soul sucking monster took her away from him. One evil thing had taken away his child once before but there had been the hope that they could have found her again. That she was safe.

There was no such luxury now.

Snow was screaming much like she had done in childbirth when they had known the end was coming but there was nothing that they could do to stop it. But David knew one thing both as father and prince. He might not be able to stop this again but he would damned if he was going to let Emma go without a fight.

He was moving without realising that he was doing it, shouting that he would not lose his daughter again. He could hear Snow screaming with him but he felt like telling her to stay. His wife was one of the few people who understood what Regina was thinking and someone had to be there to stop the woman from getting her hands on Henry. Regina might not have magic now but she would soon of that he was sure off and someone had to keep the town from imploding in the meantime. That someone had to be his wife.

But then David Nolan, Prince Charming, the father of Emma Swan was falling through the darkness after his daughter to who-knows-where. He saw through the darkness (or perhaps through the terror he was feeling he had imagined it) a flash of blonde and he tried to keep it in his line of sight but it was gone.

He crashed down landing next to something and before he fell into unconsciousness he saw Emma much the same her eyes closed next to him. He reached out though it seemed to cost him super-human effort and wrapped one arm around her hand.

He had done it. He was with his daughter. He could hear someone approaching and even a woman screaming though that might be Snow in his head for all he knew.

The last thing David Nolan remembered before unconsciousness took him was that when he woke up he could finally, after twenty eight years start being a father.

In hindsight that might have been slightly naïve of him.

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 **An** **d there it is, I hope you enjoyed this first chapter. I do plan to update regularly but with work and uni that might be a bit difficult so please keep that in mind.**

 **Next Chapter-Emma and David are held hostage at the bottom of a dark pit. Emma does some thinking and they meet a curious woman with an agenda. **


	2. Break On Through

**Hi, so here is another chapter, thank you all so much for your kind reviews with the first chapter and I hope you enjoy this other chapter. I intend this story to be of ten chapters covering the first part of season 2 and the David Emma angle so with the publishing of this chapter there are eight more chapters left of this story.**

 **Disclaimer-Nothing is mine just this chapter and this little arc.**

 **Please Read and Review.**

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Unguarded Moments

Chapter 2-Break On Through

Emma and David are held hostage at the bottom of a pit, Emma does some thinking and they meet a curious woman with an agenda.

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She had not looked at him the entire time that they had been walking. And considering David had on more than one occasion tried to catch her eye—that was saying something. He took a breath looking around where they had rested for the night. Being tied to a horse was no fun especially after the whole hitting concrete thing that had happened when he had been thrown through the portal.

Sometimes he wondered if he was getting too old for this kind of thing. He was nearing mid-forties if you went by all the years he had been alive and he was trapped in a twenty-something body that he suspected his past self, had not been taking the upmost care off. And to cap it all of the curse had worn of and he could now feel every injury that he had been subjected to fighting his way through the castle to protect the woman beside him.

His side throbbed where the Black Knight's sword had pierced it just to prove it's point.

A part of him wondered how Emma was going to cope. She had certainly hurt her knee because everytime she had stood up she had winced. He had tried to help her the one time but even before the guards could separate them again but she always managed to move herself away from him and then there was no point because they were moving again. Emma was so quick about it was hardly noticeable that she was flinching away every few seconds or that she was refusing to meet his eye. In fact if he was to hazard a guess he would put all the eggs into the basket that said his daughter was avoiding him deliberately.

Finally they had been taken to a part of what he knew was the Enchanted Forest that looked safe from the curse even if the people had that frightened pinched look that he associated with Regina, Rumplestilskin and the upcoming war. There was a pause where he looked around as they waited for whomever it was to come out and greet them. Nobody seemed to recognise him but David had been suspecting that. It had been twenty-eight years since he had last been here and while time had stopped for him it had not stopped for the people who had lived through this world being ripped apart.

Nobody was left that was alive who could recognise him and certainly nobody was going to recognise Emma who was still refusing to look at him or even talk to him.

He didn't recognise this bit of land. He didn't recognise this world. He didn't know how much time had passed but he still thought that it was still the same day. Just this morning he had woken up as David Nolan and had been prepared to leave this town so that he could run from the damage he had caused time and time again.

Well talk about breaking through that barrier.

Finally they reached some kind of a stop and he noticed that while he had coped with the walk quite well (he was an ex-shepherd, an ex-soldier and had not had the luxury of a car for all his life after all) Emma was struggling. He could see it even if other people around them couldn't see it and even if Emma didn't want to admit it.

He angled his body a bit closer to her.

"Are you ok?" he asked. It was not the first time that he tried to speak to her but she had often ignored his conversation starters or they had been forced to keep quiet. Finally she turned to him as they stopped walking. Emma turned to him her face blank as if she expected a trap door attached to the question. David paused wondering if she would answer him.

"No" Emma said finally and there was a biting edge to her voice that made him stare at her a little bit harder. "No I am most definitely not ok"

"I was referring to the—"

"Oh I know what you are referring too" Emma said shaking her head so her blonde hair (hair which she had gotten from him he supposed) was pushed off her face and down her back. "In terms of the walk I am ok, banged my knee up a bit but I've had worse scrapes. In terms of everything else…well…" And she looked away shaking her hair again and David felt like he had been on the cusp of something with his daughter only to be interrupted by both Emma's walls and the fact that at that point one of the men with his face covered in cloth pushed them both without warning down a dark hole and David once again felt his body scream in protest. He could see another flash of blonde hair as Emma landed next to him but his exhausted body finally flatlined on him. The adrenaline finally won out and he slid into unconsciousness as his body tried to cope with all that had happened since what he supposed was this morning.

* * *

Emma sat up her head screaming with protest and she managed to push herself back against rough dirt walls that were firm. She was now coated in dirt and she felt as if she was in dire need of a hot meal, a hot bath and a stiff drink. Or several stiff drinks. She winced as flare of pain hit her knee. She was sure that she had banged it up pretty heavily when she had fallen between worlds and hit concrete but she had been in worse pain. Emma had once broken her arm falling out of a tree, her jaw in a punch up with another girl whose boyfriend had stepped in and then of course that was nothing compared to the song and dance it had been to deliver Henry handcuffed to a bed without pain relief.

So no right now she could handle the pain in her knee. It was better to focus on it however rather than deal with the swirling thoughts that were in her head and the man that was still knocked out cold next to her. David Nolan. Prince Charming. Her Father.

Oh shit.

So Henry had been right all along. Gold she was beginning to think might be the underestimated villain, she could deal with Regina because Regina only had one weak spot and Emma shared it. Henry. The fight for their son…for her son was far from over but the simple matter was that she was struggling to comprehend whatever was happening.

Her parents were her roommate and her roommates ex married lover. Oh she felt sick.

She had told Mary Margaret more in the months that she had been living with her than she had told anyone in her entire life. She had struggled to put two and two together and now she felt betrayed in so many ways that her head span when she thought of it. There was a pause where she sat and tried to breath in through her nose and out through her mouth like they had taught her in school least she work her way up to a genuine panic attack and ruin everything.

There was another long heartbeat and then she looked around at the hole they were in. David—her Dad—no David Nolan (because the other title was too much on top of everything else that had taken place) was still out cold on the floor but he was breathing. Her body was still shaking in the post adrenaline wake up call and she wrapped both her arms around her knees as she tried to think about what was happening.

Right now she was trapped in a world that yesterday she had never believed existed. Her son was trapped on Earth with his stepmother who could curse people with apples and her parents who she had thought had discarded her like trash on the side of a highway wrapped in nothing but a blanket with her name on it that despite her better judgement she should have discarded.

Why couldn't she stop feeling so fucking betrayed by the whole thing? It's not like Henry had been at fault, if she took the path that laid the blame at his door for opening this can of worms then she would have been better off wishing that he had never found her and that was not fair on either him or her. And Emma rationalised to herself she was glad that he had found her because even if she didn't want these people as her parents—even if she didn't want Snow White and Prince Charming in her life she did want her son.

But she had a sneaking suspicion that one now would lead to the other. There was no way she could have Henry without her parents not after he spent so long trying to reunite them and she suspected that there was no way that she could edge her way around spending time with them. But did she want to?

She nibbled her finger and then turned her mind away from that mental conversation and then turned to the next one. Regina.

Regina.

God the very word echoed around her head. Emma supposed that she was when they got back to their own world (and she refused to think of the word if or what would happen if they did not get back to their world) she and Regina would have to have the reckoning that had been building since she had come running out of her house panic and fear etched on her face only to face the sting of rejection when Henry had pushed her away. Emma had felt sorry for her then. Right now knowing what she knew about Regina she could not muster up that feeling but she could not deny in that little hole right there and then that she didn't understand and know deep in her gut that the other woman loved her son very much.

She might not like it. But she knew it was true.

Emma wiped her eyes feeling water on her hand and she wiped them on her muddy jeans as she looked around again. There was no way out. There was no course of action. There was nothing to do but to sit there and wonder what the hell was going to happen. She didn't know anything about this world and the only person that did know it and it's people and it's customs was next to her unconscious and she was still unsure weather or not she wanted to ask him for his help. Or weather or not she could trust him.

David. Her father.

God even saying the word in her head made her want to vomit.

Her father.

He had been a source of anger and sadness and pain for as long as she could remember. She supposed that it was fitting that even in his cursed persona Emma Swan had never liked David Nolan much.

There was a movement next to her and she stood up wincing at the pain in her knee as she forced herself to her feet. David was still out cold next to her and she had only her gun—these people had not understood what that was and she found her hip wondering weather or not she should pull it out.

A woman came and stood out of the shadows dressed in a long dress covered in sparkles. She had red hair and eyes that seemed to search into your soul. There was something about her that was both scary and achingly familiar and she tilted her head to the side wondering what it was that made her wonder weather or not this woman was friend or foe or a mixture of both.

"Don't worry" she said finally. "We…he will be fine"

Emma nodded. "What is this place?" she asked finally. "What is your name"

The woman gave a smile. "This is a little island our captors like to think as a heaven"

A haven? Had everyone in this realm gone crazy?

"Who are you" Emma asked as she stood up moving slightly so David was behind her.

The woman smiled. It was slow and dangerous and familiar all in once. Emma Swan had seen that smile before.

"My name" the woman said as if this bombshell she was about to drop was something she relished. "Is Cora."

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 **Next Chapter-David reflects on what his wife told him about Cora and Emma's willingness to trust her. Lancelot makes an appearance and part one of a plan is formed.**

 **And I hope to update sooner rather than later but in the meantime please let me know what you think of this chapter. **


	3. I Went Into The Woods

**Hi, so here is another chapter, I have only seven left of this story and I intend to publish at least two more chapters before I go back to uni and the chapters become a bit more sporadic.**

 **Disclaimer-Nothing is mine.**

 **Please Read And Review and let me know what you think.**

* * *

Unguarded Moments

Chapter 3- I Went Into The Woods

David reflects on what his wife told him about Cora and Emma's willingness to trust her but not him. Lancelot makes an appearance a plan is formed and David confronts some demons.

* * *

He wished it would hurt less he really did. Oh not the aches and pains throughout his body David could handle that. It wasn't like he had grown up with health insurance. For the first twenty or so years of his life he had not lived in a castle either with ease to call a physician. So no the pain in his body he could deal with. The suspicion from his daughter however he could not.

Snow would know what to do he thought to himself. Snow who had been the one who should have gone through with Emma in that tree. Snow who should have raised her to understand that her destiny was to break the curse and too believe in magic and the Enchanted Forest. Snow would get her to understand that an alliance with Regina's mother was dangerous but Emma had inherited both of their combined grit and determination and it seemed the more he tried to point out that perhaps trusting Regina's mother was not the smartest idea, the more Emma Swan seemed to want to do it.

He had not known he would admit much about the reason for the hate between his wife and his stepmother. He knew Snow had killed someone that Regina had loved, her true love, her stable-boy Daniel and once upon a time he might have sympathised with her but the fact of the matter was that she had spent most of her time courting revenge rather than dealing with her grief and he still didn't know exactly how his wife had killed the boy or how she had not gone dark.

But David was willing to bet that it had something to do with this woman standing in front of him.

He had tried to stand up and protect her leaping in front of her when he had seen who she was talking to but she had already done most of the damage when he was out cold. She had told Cora about Regina, about Henry. He didn't believe for a second that Cora was concerned about him but when he had tried to tell Emma that as bad as Regina was this woman was worse (after all this woman had made Regina-he did believe enough and know enough to accept that the woman had not been born evil after all) she had looked at him with virtually nothing in her eyes and told him quite frankly that she didn't care weather or not Cora was worse than her daughter, and that her first priority was getting back to her son.

The lack of trust in his ability to get her back to him. The lack of trust in Snows ability to take on her stepmother and keep her grandson safe. The lack of trust in them as parents full stop, as leaders had never been more apparent in that moment. He was glad that his back was to Cora in that moment and Emma had peered around him to get another look at the woman because he feared that the hurt on his face was so strong he couldn't possibly hide it.

The shout for them to come out into the open interrupted David's thoughts and he allowed Emma to climb the rope first but even as his body screamed again in protest he still climbed after her wondering if the pain was ever going to stop or if this was the price that he had to pay for failing to protect his daughter more times than he could count (and yes he was counting all of the times he was in Storybrooke).

And that was when he saw him.

Lancelot.

And David knew they were saved.

* * *

"A wardrobe?" Emma asked as they were walking through the forest something vaguely resembling a plan in front of them. "You really did shove me through a wardrobe in a hollowed out tree?"

"Yes" David said rather surprised that she was asking any questions at all. She had barley spoken other than to inquire what the hell she was expected to eat. He had to smile to himself at the look on her face when Lancelot had told her. Emma's idea he suspected of roughing it was not having grilled cheese when she was presented with a troubling problem. And the Ogre's were a pressing problem.

"All of the stories are true Emma" he said as they continued their walk through the woods. Emma shrugged. "I thought that book was a load of crazy. How was I supposed to know that Henry was right about it. I thought it was a way of getting him through living with Regina."

David wisely didn't say anything about that. He might have clean hands in that whole mess but he only knew some of the story of what had taken place between his wife and Regina when she had been her stepdaughter. He had no idea what had happened to the stable-boy or why Snow had willingly taken that apple or…well he supposed there was a lot of things he had never asked his wife. It made no difference to him. Snow was Snow and he loved her regardless but he reasoned that it might be different for Emma was still trying to find her feet. It would do no good for him to turn her against his wife, her mother when her mother had no way of defending herself in the present.

"Why are the ogre's being back bad?" she asked finally.

Ah that was a question he could answer easily.

"Rumplestilskin…Gold he banished them a long time ago. The wars with humans and ogre's went on for a long time. Men were drafted, women were drafted, children were drafted, the skies were burnt red with blood for a long time and then he became the Dark One and he walked straight into the middle of the battlefield and destroyed them. Cowered them. And they were winning the war. It's probably the only good thing that Gold ever did come to think of it. Some say he did it for the glory but I never thought that was it. There was another reason why he did it. He made damn sure the children were the first people who got home as well. Punished the Count who took them most terribly I was told"

He shuddered a little. Emma watched him.

"Gold's powerful, and he's the only one that's got Regina cowered" she confessed. David nodded.

"Yes but he was half of the problem. He taught Regina, hell I think he taught her mother. He's been around long enough, I don't know anyone left alive who remembers him as a man untouched by the darkness. He stayed out of the war between Regina and your moth—between Regina and Snow"

He corrected himself just in time looking at the look on Emma's face when he nearly acknowledged that they were her parents or that she even had parents. He bit his lip and tried to think of another way around the rather obvious obstacle.

"Anyhow" He began quickly and Emma looked at him with a rather relieved look apparently pleased that they were not going to tackle the still rather raw fact that he was her father.

"He stayed out of it. I don't think he cared who won. I think he knew it would be Regina in the end. Hell it was in a way—she got the last laugh. I don't want to think about what could happen if he continued to work with her. She's powerful even if she doesn't have magic—"

(And he suspected by now that Regina would have found a way to have her magic back)

"But he's worse. Much worse"

Emma nodded as they walked forwards apparently taking it under advisement. David decided to ask a question of his own.

"What do you plan to do with Regina when we get back?"

Emma shrugged. "Henry doesn't want her dead." She said finally. "And I suppose—she did raise him for ten years regardless I don't want to take that away from her. I've been inside her house she has pictures and school things and memories. Not all of them could have been fake. And you didn't see her when she thought he was dead…" She swallowed harshly and then shook her head. "She cares. I suppose what I'll do is whatever Henry wants. Even I take him across town lines she can follow and grab him back. She's his mother, she has the rights, Archie told me as much that no court is going to give him to me. He's skipped school, made up a story—or at least to a judge it's a story and I don't think me saying that she poisoned him with an apple is going to get me custody either. Especially not when there's no medical evidence to back it up. I only have the power if I'm in the town"

She scowled again. David tried to hide his relief. At least he didn't have to worry about waking up one morning and finding out that she was gone in the night. He considered what she said about Regina. His daughter and her were bounded by the love of a common thing. Children. He suspected that Regina might be easier to deal with if they let Henry call the shots. If there was one thing he believed from what Snow had told him it was that Regina did not want to be her mother.

He was beginning to wonder if he had the nerve to ask about Henry's father when something heavy hit him from the side on and he went flying. He felt hair in his mouth and he saw what looked like another angry woman on top of him trying to kill him.

Considering his life both as shepherd, Prince, father and unhappily married man he was beginning to think that there might be a pattern emerging.

* * *

They were on their way to the castle. The 'Enchanted Castle'. One day Emma was going to need surgery because her eyes had rolled back into her head too many times and had gotten stuck. There had been the snake thingy that they had wanted her to eat, there had been the ogre, there had been her father shooting at it with a shout of "Don't touch my daughter!" which was going to stay with her for a long time, there was Sleeping Beauty and Mulan who apparently were noting like their Disney counterparts and on top of that there was still the knowledge that she was the daughter of Snow White and Prince Charming and her son was currently in the keeping of either Snow White or the Evil Queen.

Emma really needed a drink. And a sleep. And perhaps a good cry as well.

She wanted…well she didn't know what she wanted, she certainly didn't know if she wanted to go back into what was her first home (for seconds) and see the evidence she was trying to ignore. She didn't want to acknowledge that David cared about her, all she wanted to do was go home and deep down she had a sneaking suspicion that this might be the only way.

Magic.

Oh boy.

Still she put one foot in front of the other even when all she wanted to do was let her body collapse and fall asleep. She had been going on what she suspected was certainly twenty-four hours without sleep, two massive adrenaline spikes and more and more surprises. Actually she was unsure of just how much her heart could take and she was sure that if she continued she was going to lose what little control she had left on her temper. Big style.

David was not telling her something about her and Mary Margaret's shared history with Regina. Of that Emma was a hundred percent sure of and she was damn well going to find out what. She knew Regina was to blame for a lot of things but she was willing to bet that the woman hadn't started a vendetta that had gone on for two lifetimes just for the sake of a mirror telling her that Mary Margaret was prettier than her.

"Nearly there" David said beaming at her a strange look in his eye and Emma threw him a quick smile because all she could think about in that moment was that she was going home to her son. To answers, to…well she didn't know what but certainly her own bed, decent food and a hot shower.

Nearly there she told herself. To what she wasn't sure but certainly to Henry. To her son.

He, she thought to herself rather bitterly, was the only family Emma Swan had ever needed.

* * *

 **And there it is, please let me know what you think.**

 **Next Chapter-Emma sees her childhood, Cora sees an opportunity, David sees noting but regret and a new character is on the horizon seeing nothing but his revenge. **


	4. Favour, Affection, Malice Or Ill Will

**Hi so here is another chapter and there are just six more left of this story. Hopefully I will be able to update again soon before the workload starts and timing becomes an issue.**

 **I hope you all enjoy this chapter and review it and let me know what you think.**

 **Disclaimer-Nothing is mine.**

 **On another note-I wrote a section in the previous chapter where David thought he was in an unhappy marriage-that was not referring to his marriage to Snow but rather to his cursed marriage to Katheryn where he was in love with another woman-any questions on this chapter or any other part of the story then please dont hesitate to ask.**

 **Please Read and Review.**

* * *

Unguarded Moments

Chapter 4-Favour, Affection, Malice Or Ill Will

Emma sees her childhood (or what it could have been), Cora sees an opportunity, David sees nothing but regret and a new character is on the horizon seeing nothing but his revenge.

* * *

The castle was exactly the same as he had remembered it. The same winding steps and the same close stoned walls and spiral staircases though there were more cobwebs than before and the place smelled like damp and neglect and decay. The whole thing was sad. This had been his home, his home with his wife and his daughter. In reality they had never even gotten to enjoy one day together the three of them. More like one second.

The rooms were still the same only they had been ripped from the roots. The bedroom that Emma had been born into was smashed in two, the throne room was ruined. It looked like the magic had taken hold and ripped his home apart. Regina had done some damage he had to admit. But that was not the room that was going to haunt him of that David knew. The room that he had both imagined and dreaded seeing too many times since the he had been stuck in this land was coming towards him.

Emma's nursery.

It was the room he needed and yet the place he feared. It had been hope cruelly torn away and pain and suffering and yet for those few months when they had been designing the place it had seemed in those golden hours they could snatch together the best place in the world. Him, Snow and baby Emma in her mother's stomach kicking away to her hearts content.

Emma was right behind him though. Emma who was all grown up who didn't need a father. David wasn't too proud to snatch up the scraps he had remembered as David Nolan and since he had been in her company that she had shared about her childhood and he was not about to turn down more information. But this…his most painful memory…perhaps to Emma his most painful failure but in his mind his greatest accomplishment was the wardrobe that was in her nursery.

Getting her to it to safety…but also to a world filled with hurt and pain where she was alone. It was like his knees had become lead and he had to force himself it seemed to keep moving and put one foot in front of the other. It was not just him that was depending on this transportation. It was Emma, Mulan and Aurora who had no kingdom and no loves left. It was Henry who was depending on his mother. It was Snow who was probably keeping together a whole town and battling Regina and raising her grandson living in hope.

And it was that, that forced him to open the door.

It was…well…he had imagined worse.

The crib was gone, toys were strewn everywhere, the mobile smashed and discarded. Books, clothes and other trinkets gone. The warmth and the light had turned to dark cold and damn stale air. The blankets were faded and dirty. All of it…all of Emma's room was gone. And yet somehow he had imagined worse.

David was beginning to wonder if he had a very bad sense of imagination.

"Wow" was all Emma said looking around. "Was…was all of this for me?"

"Yeah" he said thickly trying to work through the knot in his throat that he had since been unable to unstick. How was he supposed to explain to her that this had been his hopes and dreams and now it was all in ruins. How was he supposed to even be a father to her? He'd had no clue back then and now she was a grown woman with her own child, a lifetime of baggage and more than a few scars. How was he supposed to be there for her when even as his alter ego she had not liked him in the slightest?

Snow would know what to do. Snow would know what to say and how to make her at ease. David didn't. Snow had always had that maternal instinct that had made people fall in love with her, it had come from both her personality in general and he suspected her royal upbringing, Snow knew how to love and receive love even if there was very little chance of it being recuperated. Even know David was unsure if his wife truly deeply hated her step-mother. David had been awkward at that. Love was not something he traded in. Courage perhaps although right now he didn't feel very courageous.

"So this is it?" Emma said staring at the wardrobe. "Henry was right"

"He was. But…Emma anyone would have thought that story was strange. Goodness it was my story and there were times when even I thought the kid was off his rocker. It didn't make sense to us then, you shouldn't blame yourself for not believing in him"

"He came looking for me because Regina didn't believe him. I don't think she knew until I came into town. And even then…I didn't believe him because it was…believing that you had a reason…it was something I had never considered. Never mind the fact that I thought the magic aspect was sheer rubbish"

She rubbed her forehead with her fingers as if massaging a headache away and the gesture was so intimately his wife that he had to look away for fearing of being overcome by a moment of sentimentality that really would not help them. They were alone Mulan and Aurora gone to search or perhaps to tactfully give father and daughter some time alone. He did not know nor did he care.

"Your mother…she was supposed to go in with you. I was the one that was supposed to wait in frozen time not the both of us. In the plans we discussed…one of us was always with you because she was going to go through as soon as the wardrobe was finished. When she was pregnant. But you came to early. It's not like you had any control over it but…but we did have a plan where you were not alone I promise you that"

Emma watched him for a second longer and his heart beat a little bit faster as he tried to pretend like her scrutiny wasn't agony. Emma opened her mouth, her eyes so impossibly and heartbreakingly sad, but before she could say anything there was a sound behind them and David turned weapon in hand ready to protect his daughter.

The shape moved out of the shadows. It was Lancelot.

And that was the moment David knew something instinctually wasn't right.

* * *

Ash. That was all it was. Ash. The wardrobe that was supposed to take them back home was gone. It had turned to dust and more to the point it was her hand that had thrown the flames at the wood torching their only plan. Instinct thought, Emma thought to herself. Instinct had brought them to this point. It had been the knowledge of Regina reuniting with her mother and her son in the same town that forced her move towards the wardrobe.

It had been the thing that had taken her out of this world and it was supposed to take her back to her own but Emma didn't really care about that. She cared about this room, the feelings it was inspiring in her that she really didn't like and the fact that David wasn't speaking to her right now didn't help matters either.

He was staring at the ash at his feet with an oddly detached expression. Emma bit her lip wondering what she was going to say. After all it was not just her that needed to get home, he did as well and she had pretty much torched their ride.

"Sorry I torched our ride" she said deciding to bite the bullet and get the whole conversation over with. Standing in the room where her childhood should have been was more sobering than she thought it would have been and that was just for her never mind what it must be like for her…for David.

"I just couldn't..." and there she was again tripping over her words. She didn't understand why she was doing that. She wasn't sure what to say. That was the feeling that she was struggling with. What to say, did she even want to say anything and the fact of the matter was, was anything that either she or David could say paint the picture of their lives in different colours?

"I know" David said and his voice was very soft. It was comforting in a way Emma registered dimly. "You couldn't let her get back to Henry. I understand"

Emma nodded. David moved to the door as if he was finally pulling himself out of whatever memories were grounding him in this room and that was when without warning, Emma opened her mouth and for the first time ever voiced her feelings towards her father.

"I hated you for so long"

It was nothing less than the truth but it made David stop and turn around his face a mask of smooth marble. Emma wondered if during her walk through the forest and the little information they had shared since sharing the truth if David hadn't been waiting for this one. He took a deep breath and Emma suddenly recognised that he was going to stand there and take whatever fury and hurt and pain that she had built for years deep inside of her.

That thought alone made her hurt.

But it was too late to turn back time now. She had to go on. Everything depended on her going on. She wet her lips and then continued as she finally managed to put a voice to her swirling, chaotic thoughts.

"Wondering, how you could choose to give me up" She paused and looked down and she saw the edge of her boot had touched what she supposed must have been a stuffed unicorn. There were so many stuffed animals here she would have been spoilt for choice. In the system she had, had nothing.

"But now…looking at all of this…you didn't have a choice did you?"

David was watching her his gaze half in light and then half in shadow so she couldn't easily see him. Emma didn't want to look at him as she told him that she had spent most of her childhood hating him for being a coward and a deadbeat, for leaving her at the side of the road like she was nothing but trash. It made her feel bad even though know she knew that it wasn't his fault.

"I'm sorry" she said because she was starting to tear up. The last time she had cried Henry had been lying on that bed looking lifeless and Emma had known that she had been alone—deep in her bones she had known the truth. That even if magic did exist and she was reunited with her parents it wouldn't make a blind bit of difference because she was alone.

"It's just…I'm not use to someone putting me first"

And there it was. The bitter truth. Nobody had ever put Emma's Swan first. And she had no idea how to react when someone did.

David…her Dad…was still watching her. It happened before she could say anything. He had crossed the room and hugged her, wrapping his arm around her and she pressed her face into his shoulder. This was not like hugging David Nolan she thought blindly. This was like a different kind of hug. His hand came to cover her head and for a second they stood there hugging. For a Emma Swan felt something, it took her a while before she realised that it was safety. She felt safe in her father's arms.

Well that was something she hadn't seen coming.

"Well get used to it" David said smiling. His eyes were overbright and Emma found herself blinking rather rapidly herself.

The moment was ruined by Mulan who stuck her head through the door looking around as if she expected Cora to rise from the ashes but Emma wondered if perhaps there was a corner turned between the two of them. But of course there was always something in the way.

* * *

Cora edged along the shoreline watching the figure on the black horizon. It had been years since she had last seen him and immortality in Neverland had been good for him. He still had the ruggedly handsome look of a man who had been ravaged by grief and driven by revenge. Cora supposed once upon a time she might have found him handsome. She supposed once upon a time she might have stopped him from killing Rumple. Her Rumple—the only man she had ever really loved. But…well…that was then and this was now.

Rumple was the only man that she had loved or ever considered herself an ally with. This man…this man was simply a means to an end. There was only going to be one winner between her daughter and Emma Swan and she was choosing her daughter to back. This man would get her there. Heart or no heart.

"Hello Cora" he said his eyes still glued on the shoreline. Cora didn't so much as flinch when she felt cold sand cover her silk shoes. She had endured much worse and she was the mother of a queen. She did not flinch, she did not so much as let a flicker cross her face. She was right where she was supposed to be. Rumple had been right it seemed, waiting for events to happen even when you could see them in advance did sooth the mind. Still she was about to make a deal with someone to get what she wanted and she knew how to play that game even if she was filled with a strong malice towards the place she was going to.

"Hello Hook"

Let the game begin then.

* * *

 **And there you go-Hope you all enjoy and I will try and update as soon as I am able to.**

 **Not all of the dialogue is the same but I have tried to keep it as real as I can just putting my own spin on it.**

 **Next Chapter-The gang come across what was left of the camp and find a soon to be familiar looking man who might be friend or foe. Emma climbs a beanstalk and makes a surprising decision. David is not impressed. Sleeping Beauty finds them a clue. **


	5. Where You Left Your Heart

**Hi, so here is chapter five and then there are only five more chapters left of this little story. I hope you all enjoy this story and this chapter.**

 **Disclaimer-Nothing is mine just this chapter.**

 **Please Read and Review.**

 **And I will try and update on the sooner side rather than the later.**

 **Also the next few chapters will be spread out among the same episode so please keep that in mind.**

* * *

Unguarded Moments

Chapter 5-Where You Left Your Heart

The gang come across what was left of the camp and find a soon to be familiar looking man who might be friend or foe. Emma climbs a beanstalk and makes a surprising decision. David is not impressed. Sleeping Beauty however might just find them a clue.

* * *

Everyone was dead. Everyone in that camp was dead. Emma had seen death but the scale to which it was in front of her was something almost unprecedented at least to her. The death was off the charts. And it was clearly not natural. Something terrible had happened here, in this last little haven for people who had escaped the worst of the curse.

Someone had ripped out their hearts and crushed them into dust and left them on the floor for Emma and her father to walk through.

(And that was the option that she was going for because the other option was just too damn creepy for her to consider—on top of everything else that she had been through in the last few days zombies were something that were firmly going to stay in the realms of her imagination)

And there was only one person who could have really done this. One person who had a living offspring who had made this her trademark when she had ruled this world with an iron fist and the curl of her lip. This was Regina's trademark and Emma knew who it had been that had taught her this trick. There was a pause where she looked around at the death seeing not just the death that Cora had done but suddenly very aware of the blood that must be covered on Regina's hands. The hands that had held Henry as a baby.

She had to look away so she didn't throw up and compromise…well…everything. David was next to her shifting around the bodies trying to see if there were any living souls still alive. There was a pause where she stood there and that was when she heard Mulan call out that despite all odds there was someone alive.

The man was looking at her. He was looking around like he was bemused by what had happened but Emma noted keenly that his eyes always flickered back towards her. And there was something about the way that he was looking at her that set her whole body on edge. She couldn't tell it if was interest or something else.

And…well…Emma was a human being after all however long it had been since she had, had someone interested in her. She would not deny that this man was very attractive.

Even if it was soon clear (at least to her) that he was lying through his teeth.

* * *

David gnashed his teeth together for the umpteenth time and reminded himself that he had to get back to his wife and grandson and that killing the only man who might have a way for that to happen was not going to be very productive. But it was hard…oh it was so hard it set his teeth on edge and again as he crashed through the undergrowth he found himself gnashing his teeth together in a way that whatever person his dentist had been in Storybrooke was not going to like.

Oh it was hard to not hit Hook.

Oh it was hard. So hard.

Hook had a bit of a reputation himself. David had not known the man all that well—his and Snow's war had been on land and they'd had no plans to tackle pirates but Hook—well he knew enough to know that Hook had earned his reputation and had earned it well. He was a pirate like no other, with a skill that was borderline suburb and then there was his ability to sell out his allegiance to the highest bidder without losing so much as an ounce of sleep. He was not the kind of man David trusted and certainly not the kind of man that he wanted to spend more than a few seconds with.

And then there was the fact that the bloody prat was flirting with his daughter who was not exactly throwing him on his ass and telling him to get lost. Instead she was almost amused by it rolling her eyes a few times—in all fairness it was not like Emma was trying to flirt back—she seemed more than happy just pretending that it didn't exist but he was most certainly not happy with this arrangement and he would be damned if he was going to let the daughter he had just got back be swept away by some dirty pirate.

He had in fact all but insisted that he go up that beanstalk with Hook. He was a good climber and he would have no qualms about leaving the dratted pirate up there if he so much as made one wrong comment about his daughter but Emma had already suggested that she go. She had glint in her eye that was all too familiar to the one that her mother got when she had an idea that David knew he wasn't going to like.

Emma had that same look. For a woman that looked more like her father than her mother it was astounding to see just how much like her mother she was.

"You don't have to do this" he said. "Beanstalks are…difficult. Once your up there…it's not like rock climbing where you can just slip back down"

Emma stared at him for a second almost as if she was trying to commit something to memory and then she nodded.

"I know" she said "I'm not afraid and besides I trust you if something happens to take care of Henry"

David wanted to tell her that nothing was going to happen but to be honest the fact that she had said that she trusted him with something as precious as her child had completely floored him. This was the first time she had been open with him like that since the castle and it stunned him into silence long enough for her to speak to Mulan, have the cuff on her wrist and start climbing the damn beanstalk before he could regain the power of speech.

She trusted him.

He couldn't stop grinning like an idiot for a long time.

* * *

Aurora was struggling. Every few seconds she was dozing off and then she was waking up. David suspected the only reason she had tried to go to sleep in the first place was because her body had been so exhausted by the walking and the sleepless nights that she didn't have a choice.

He knew the signs rather too well. The Sleeping Beauty as she was known had been a victim of a sleeping curse much in the way that his wife had been. He didn't like to think of the woman who had likely casted it before it had fallen into Regina's hands. His past with Regina's other mentor and her dragon self was something he most certainly did not want to think about when his daughter had first told him that she trusted him and that she knew he was putting her first. No. That would ruin everything.

"You alright?" he asked moving so he was sitting down on the grass next to her. Aurora's eyes were lidded with the desire to sleep but she looked terrified of what she would find there and David had no candles even if that did soothe her in the way it soothed his wife once upon a long time ago. He realised with a pang that he didn't even know if Snow was still having the nightmares about the darkened room where everything was on fire. She had said they had stopped when they had been married but the world was upside down now.

"Err…" Aurora gave a long pause looking around as if she thought the very air around her was going to give her the answers that she so desperately sought but then her face seemed to crumple and she slowly shook her head looking like a wounded animal and David was forced to remind himself that she too had lost the man that she had loved days after she had woken up and found that the very earth beneath her feet was unstable and dangerous. He sat down next to her holding out his arm and after a second of looking it at like it was a gun, Aurora leaned against him.

"Don't worry about the nightmares" he said finally. "My wife told me they go away eventually and she was right about that as well as most things. I promise you, try and get some sleep and if you get scared squeeze my hand"

She paused looking up at him for a second and David gave her what he hoped was a fatherly looking smile (though in all fairness he didn't know what that one was) and then she closed her eyes.

They sat there in comfortable silence for a long time and David tried to close his eyes not to sleep but to pray that the confidence Emma had that she could do this was real and that she would succeed and that they could go home sooner rather than later.

At least that was what he was doing for hours until Mulan decided to kill his daughter.

* * *

The rage he had been feeling was nothing short of murderous. He had launched himself at Mulan in a desperate attempt to stop her feeling his body ache with the sudden movement after so much time spent in one position and his hands wrap around her throat.

He had forgotten about Snow's code that men should never strike against women (though he suspected Regina might be the exception to that rule). If Mulan didn't want to fight and be treated like a soldier then she shouldn't be using that sword to cut down the damn beanstalk his daughter was still up in.

"Emma said to cut it down" she said struggling against him.

Did David look like he cared? Oh he was going to kill Emma if she survived this. No way in hell was she going to sacrifice herself for him even if she did trust him with Henry. He was not going to go back to his wife and tell her that the daughter she had not known existed until a few days ago had died because she had chosen to save him rather than herself.

But before he could reach for his sword that he had stolen from the camp (it wasn't like he owned a gun as he had worked in an animal shelter in his past life) there was a shaking next to him, Aurora screamed "Emma" and he turned around still pinning Mulan to the floor to see his daughter looking windblown and shaken and minus the pirate her knees knocking together.

David was up and running towards her in seconds passing Aurora who had run to her friends, side in a whirl of pale pink. Emma's gaze went from confused to surprised when she saw him but before she could say anything David had pulled her into his arms one hand cupping her head breathing into the side of her neck desperately trying to stop the tremors of terror in his body as he came down from what he suspected was an almighty adrenaline crash.

He barely listened to Emma's explanation when she told him that she had left Hook atop of the beanstalk (good) and that she had the compass. They had the way to go home they just didn't have the second half of the puzzle but as Mulan pointed out they were much better off than they had been when they had started this journey.

Her and Aurora moved so that they were heading to the woods first the latter touching Mulan's shoulder so that David and his daughter could have a moment alone. This was not the first time that Emma's impulsiveness had brought them to an impasse (after all he did have his cursed memories) and he all but shook her once they managed to get something resembling privacy.

"What the hell were you thinking?" he all but yelled. Emma did not look like she regretted her actions one bit and that made him want to scream. Didn't she understand how much she meant to him? How much he loved her? How much the thought of losing her pained him?

"We go home together Emma or not at all" he said lowering his voice in an effort to get a better grip upon his emotions. Emma watched him for a second and then nodded and David ran a hand through his hair trying to control his breathing. Honestly there were times when he thought he was seriously getting too old for this.

* * *

But as he told himself as they walked through the undergrowth again compass in hand so that they could find a way out of this realm and back to his own at least she was trusting him. At least she was talking to him and that had to mean something. They settled for the night in the midst of a clearing and Mulan lit a fire which gave them something to sit around. The very air was getting colder and colder and he supposed that they were not dressed for the Enchanted Forest. Most of the time he had, had a cloak even in summer. Now he had nothing but a thin jacket and that was not doing much good.

Aurora fell asleep again her hand curled under her cheek looking more and more like a child than she had done before. David had no idea how long she was going to stay down for but he hoped that it was at the very least an hour or two so her body could get a decent nights sleep or at least a chance to relax. Emma sat next to him running a hand over her face.

"I feel bad" she said finally. "Leaving him up there. I shouldn't but I do"

David nodded and decided to risk it by slipping a hand around her waist. He considered it a mark of how far they had come that she didn't throw him off with a scowl.

"I know" he said finally. "But you did what you had to do for Henry. And besides…did you really want to put up with him all the way back home?"

Emma had the grace to laugh a little bit at that but the moment was ruined by Aurora who had sat up screaming and David knew that his hopes had not been so lucky and that she had once again returned to the burning room where all Sleeping Curse victims went while they hoped and prayed that someone would come looking for them.

Aurora was garbling something however to Mulan her words tripping over each other as if she was spitting them out in her desperation to rid herself of what she had seen. David sat up moving towards her as she looked around desperately.

"There was a boy" she cried as she turned to see him. "A boy in the room"

"A boy?" David asked his stomach doing odd backflips. Only people who had ever been hit by a sleeping curse could be in that room and with the exception of his wife there was only one other person he knew who had been under that curse…and that was…

"Did he give you his name?" he asked finally.

Aurora tried to remember and David could see the struggle in her eyes as she tried to cobble together memories of being in that room.

"Henry" she said finally. "I think he said his name was Henry"

Emma gasped rocking back on her heels her hands already moving towards the photograph of her son that she had. David however didn't see it. All he could see was that smile on his wife's face when he finally was reunited with her and he could tell her that despite everything he had returned to her with their daughter and that they were finally able to be reunited together.

A family.

A home.

* * *

 **And there it is I hope you all enjoy it.**

 **Next Chapter-David and Emma battle for their lives as Aurora is kidnapped. Emma reflects on what she is willing and isn't willing to do for her son and David for a brief second contemplates murder. **


	6. Fight For Your Mind

**Hi, so here is another chapter-this one does jump around episodes and parts of episodes a bit more than usual but like I said in the previous chapter there is not a lot of material to use and still three more chapters left to go.**

 **Disclaimer-Nothing is mine.**

 **Please Read and Review.**

 **On a side note I am back at uni so therefore updates might be a bit few and far between. Please keep that in mind.**

 **And only three more chapters left of this little story left.**

* * *

Unguarded Moments

Chapter 6-Fight For Your Mind

David and Emma battle for their lives as Aurora is kidnapped by Cora and Hook. Emma reflects on what she is and isn't willing to do for her son and David contemplates killing for his daughter. Some cannon divergence.

* * *

They were still walking through the undergrowth trying to find a way to this lake thing. Emma had stopped listening to David's plan and Mulan and he were engaged in a debate over weather or not it could work. She didn't know what the plan was and she didn't care. She had not been able to focus on anything other than the fact that Henry was communicating through another Disney Princess and for the life of her she couldn't figure out why. Surely Regina couldn't be letting him do this and even if Regina was if Henry was getting the same burns on his hands that Aurora was getting on hers then surely her…mother…would have stopped that. Mary Margaret or Snow White or whatever she was going by now would have stopped one of her pupils if not her grandson from getting hurt.

There was a pause where she stood there trying to breath. She felt so angry that each breath took something from her. She was angry at Regina for putting them in this mess, she was angry at both David and Mary Margaret for being more than they had ever led her to believe they were (though she supposed that, that was not their fault) and she was angry at herself (though she didn't care to admit it) for letting Hook get under her skin because the more she trapesed through the undergrowth the angrier she was because she knew, she knew that she was better than this and she was better than leaving that man to die up there or worse feel Cora's wrath.

And she had nobody to talk to about that because David didn't think that she had done anything wrong. He thought that she had done something good when in fact Emma felt horrible about the whole thing. She took a deep breath and stopped letting Mulan and Aurora and David walk in front of her. It didn't mean much however because the second David noticed that she was falling behind (which was pretty much in the same instant that she did) he doubled back and held out his canteen that he had picked up in the old camp that Cora had torn apart like she was shopping on Black Friday.

"Hey" he said holding out the water assuming that she had stopped because she was tired and unable to go on further without some help. The fact that she was still struggling with the knowledge of what she had done and what was waiting for her when she got back to Storybrooke was still weighing on her mind.

"I don't need water" she said pushing away his hand. "I need bloody answers"

David nodded as she continued walking and then Emma's legs went out from under her and she sat down in the middle of a dirt road turning to look upwards at her father who after a pause sat down next to her his face turned towards her.

"What do you want to know?" he said patiently.

"How did this all start?" she asked "How did all of this start. No way did Regina wake up one morning and decided that she hated Snow White and I doubt that the stories that have been told that it was all because of vanity are true. God knows Regina doesn't need that. The only validation that she has ever needed has been from her son. Not even Graham…" she had to cut off sharply because to think about Graham was to accept that his death had not been an accident but some kind of magical revenge between her and Regina that had cost a man who had been innocent at that time at least of any crimes punishable in this world.

There was a long pause before her Dad…David Nolan…Prince Charming spoke.

"Your right. What happened between Regina and your mother…you have to understand Emma I don't know all of the story. I only know what she told me and…well she was afraid. Afraid of what would happen if the story got out because while your mother was a child there was still the fact that she was…that it was not as black and white as both she and Regina spent a lifetime blaming each other"

"Oh God" Emma said feeling dread form like a lead knot in her stomach. "What the hell happened between the two of them?"

Her father gave a long sigh.

"Before Regina was the Evil Queen, she was a young girl in love and her love was a stable boy by the name of Daniel. They kept it quiet because of course Cora would never approve and then Regina saved your mothers life and Cora proposed a marriage to your grandfather."

Emma nodded but her mind was racing as she tried to put together the image of what her mother had cost the mother of her son. There was a pause before David spoke and this time his voice was heavy with an emotion Emma wasn't able to put a name too.

"Snow found out and she confronted Regina, Regina told her the truth…at the time that was all she could do and I suspect it was the last time that she ever told anyone the truth. She told Snow that there was no way she could love a man that was older than her own father and that she was going to run away with Daniel as soon as she was able to and your mother who was young and unaware of the woman who Cora was told Cora and Cora killed Daniel so her daughter could be queen. She ripped Daniels heart out in front of Regina and crushed it based on information provided to her by Snow and since that moment onwards Regina has been obsessed with destroying your mother."

Emma was silent for a long moment taking in that in and perhaps her silence was telling because her father reached out and clasped her frozen hands in his own. It was the first time he had initiated contact preferring most of the time to let her do the contact between the two of them. Emma let him take her hands as she tried to understand what had happened all those years ago when her mother had been the same age as her son and Regina had been the same age as she had been when she had met Neal. This story she found did nothing to change her hate of Regina—she had been too much Henry's mother and too much in pain at the thought of him lying on that hospital bed lifeless for her to change that but she couldn't help but deny that a part of her felt a little bit sorry for Regina. She couldn't help it.

Emma had once been a teenager in love and while it had not ended well she couldn't help but remember the feeling that had transpired when she had laid in Neal's arms and he had told her stories about the world and he had promised her that nothing mattered other than them being together. That had all gone to shit of course but that couldn't change the fact that Emma knew what it was like to be in love and to lose that love. And it had been her own mother who had taken that love away from Regina. Without that, without that burning desire for revenge she might not have had the life that she had, had. There could have been no curse, no war, Emma might have grown up with her parents.

That was a thought that was going to fester in the dead of night and she was sure that she was going to struggle with this when she got back to Storybrooke. Just one more thing to add to the growing pile of resentment that she felt towards her parents on a good day.

"Emma" David said and she turned to look at him and she could see even in her detached state that he was desperate for the truth. There was a pause where she sat there staring at him and she struggled to breathe. David's eyes were very blue she noted.

"Emma you have to understand that she didn't know what she was doing. She was ten and Cora…well…Cora was powerful and when she found out that it was her knowledge that had set Regina on a path to where we are now she was distraught. I know your mother Emma, she was a child and she never meant to cause any harm. I just don't think that Regina was prepared for that."

"I understand" Emma said dimly. She didn't say what she understood because the truth of the matter was she didn't know. She could understand both her mother's side and Regina's side and she could also understand what to live with the consequences of your actions. There was a long pause and then she spoke.

"Regina tried to kill me. If it wasn't for Henry then I would be dead and if it wasn't for this true love thing then Henry would be dead so I hold no illusions about Regina and how evil she is. But I wont lie to you. I do understand the desire to take out your anger on the person responsible for your broken heart"

David's brow creased. "Emma are we talking about Regina or Henry's father?"

Emma snorted not going into that line of communication that she knew David was desperate to understand. She had not told Henry the truth about his father yet and she would be damned if she brought it up now just because she found that she could emphasise with the woman who had brought her nothing but grief since she had set one foot in that damn small town.

"I Know what's Regina's fault and what's not" she said finally. "And I know the difference between a malicious ten year old and one that makes a genuine mistake."

"Emma"

But they were interrupted by the sound of screaming as they were finally set upon by the zombie bandits Emma had a feeling that would happen since they had left their camp two days prior.

Fuck.

* * *

David had all but launched himself at Mulan. She had been attempting to take the compass to Cora for Aurora's life and she had promised apparently a dead Prince to save the only woman he had ever loved. David was not a monster. He did emphasise but he would be damned if this war cost him his daughter and a chance to reunite with his wife.

Emma had pulled him off Mulan before he had been genuinely prepared to kill her claiming they could find Aurora some other way. Her face was white and her lip was bleeding but his daughter otherwise looked unharmed. She was however looking at him with a rather concerned look and David knew that she was thinking about weather or not he would have killed Mulan for his family, for her, for Henry and Snow and the town of Storybrooke. They had to get Aurora back mainly because she was the only one who could communicate to the other side of the fire room and he knew enough to know that his wife would never allow Henry to go back under if there was a possibility that he could be hurt.

"David…" Emma said as he gritted his teeth. "Stop. We can find another way to get to Cora"

Didn't she understand? Didn't she understand that if they got to the Lake where he had once fought against the image of the woman that he had loved that they could get home? Didn't she understand that he was only a killer when it came to his family? He did not do this lightly but if Mulan was forcing him too then he was damn well gonna stick his knife into the soft skin of her throat until the blood spilled over his hand like a red river of blood.

He could. He could easily that was the problem. When it came to his family there was very little that he couldn't do or wouldn't do.

There was a pause where she stood there and then something knocked his daughter hard on the back of the head and she crumpled in a wave of blonde curls and red leather jackets. Mulan and he whipped around but then a second volt of something hit him and for the second time in so many days he was knocked unconscious thinking of his daughter, of how far they had come and the shift that had happened where the woman that had torn them apart the first time had been replaced by her own mother.

* * *

 **So yeah somethings might be out of cannon but I hope you like this chapter and I will try and publish the next one soon.**

 **Next Chapter-As Emma, David, Aurora and Mulan are in the cage, Emma has a run in with Hook and learns about what made Mr Gold really crazy. David wonders if some of his more...dangerous behaviour might have lost him his daughter for good. **


	7. Second Chances

**Hi, so here is another chapter, there are only three more left of this chapter and then this little story is finished so I will be dragging one more episode over three chapters so please dont be surprised if the next couple of chapters are more thoughts and feelings based rather than actual cannon episode related.**

 **Disclaimer-Nothing is mine, just this little story.**

 **Please Read and Review and let me know what you think.**

 **And I will endeavour to post the next chapter sooner rather than later and so I thank you all for your patience.**

* * *

Unguarded Moments

Chapter 7-Second Chances

As Emma, David, Aurora and Mulan are in the cage, Emma has a run in with Hook and learns about what really made Mr Gold crazy. David wonders if some of his more…dangerous behaviour might have lost his daughter for good.

* * *

When she woke up she was in the strangest dungeon that she had ever seen. There was a pause where she sat there and looked around running a hand through her hair and she looked around in a kind of daze. Mulan and Aurora were cuddled together almost intimate looking dark hair mixing with brown and pink and red clashing together. David was next to her still out cold but he was breathing and that sent a wave of relief so strong through her that she had to lean against the wet dank stone of this prison and take a deep breath and force herself to try not to start sobbing in her relief.

As her panic subsided and she managed to force it back into the box she turned around and looked in detail at the place where they were being held captive and she took a second to see it. There were no bars on the door, if that was what you could call it, just large spikes coming up from the floor and down from the ceiling and so thick that there was no way that they could squeeze past the bars. She had no idea (and yet she did have an idea—deep down) where she was and who it had been in this prision but she had to admit that this was exactly what she had imagined when she thought of medieval prisons and by now she had imagined quite a bit. This was just one more thing to add the growing pile of trauma that needed to be washed down with a gallon of wine whenever she got back to her own world and her own time and her son.

God who had put people down here? No light, no heat, no company. It was enough to make people go mad. Who would do that? Right now her prision was looking better and better and that had not exactly been a walk in the park on a bright spring day. Compared to this however, it was heaven and she made a mental note never to complain about it again.

There was a stirring next to her and she turned around. It was her Dad. David. He was finally waking up.

Emma turned around to stare at the bars so he could not see the relief that she knew was prominent in her face. The less said about how much she cared the better as far as she was concerned. Better for everyone. Certainly better for her.

David gingerly got to his feet and Emma didn't have to turn to look at him to know that his eyes were on her and that the same sharp relief on her face was probably on his as well. She didn't want to turn around because she found if she did then she was going to bury her face into his shoulder and beg him to hug her and keep her tight by his side until they got home.

God how far they had come in the last few days. How far indeed.

"Where are we?" she asked looking around and David stood up brushing dirt of his jeans an expression of what was clear disbelief on his face. He knew where they were she realised. Weather or not he could believe it was a different story but that right now was not her concern.

"I think" David said when he realised that Emma was under no circumstances backing down from this. "We are in our old dungeon. In Rumplestilskin' s cell if I was to be a betting man right about now. I only ever saw it on the outside and only twice"

"Rumplestilskin' s cell?" she said in her own shock. Mulan stirred next to her.

"I'm sorry" she said dropping her voice so that she couldn't be overheard. "Are you telling me that you had Gold in your dungeon and you didn't do anything about him?"

"Oh we tried" David said seriously. "We tried Emma but you have no idea. You imagine him as he was when we left Storybrooke and remember that he actually has something to play for now. He was a menace in the Enchanted Forest. He was virtually unstoppable. Actually now I come to think about it I don't know how we managed to get him in here for so long—it was at least a year and he knew enough magic to override the fairies."

"He wanted to be here" Emma said with grim determination. "Even before the curse Gold only did whatever he wanted when he wanted and on his terms. He let so much happen while waiting for me to realise what was going on. He didn't lift a finger until he saw all the cards on the table for the first time." She had to hide her smile. That man was going to be more trouble than Regina. Perhaps when they defeated Regina they could turn their attention to Gold but Emma suspected that was a fight that they couldn't win. Maybe it was better for them to pretend that he didn't exist. Maybe the woman in his house that night would tame him. Probably not but still…

"So this is your dungeon then?" she said in a wild transparent attempt to break the subject. "Nice décor. Makes my prision look like a holiday home"

David clearly wanted to ask the reasoning behind her going to prision but Emma had no desire to start talking about Neal. Even thinking about him atop that beanstalk with Hook had been painful. She had done the last ten years without thinking about Neal or that baby and just because one of them had come back into her life didn't mean that the other one had to. Of that she was decided on.

"Yeah" he said finally. "But this was only the cells where we kept the dangerous prisoners. Regina would have been down here had we gotten to her. At least until…"

"Until you killed her?" Emma asked and her words she realised were true. They had planned to kill Gold and Regina had they been given the chance. Snow White and Prince Charming, the consummate heroes nothing but killers Emma could laugh for the irony that was right in front of her. if only her Henry could see this now. Oh don't get her wrong as far as she viewed it Regina could rot when they got back but killing was a bit strong because, Henry probably didn't want them to kill her. Unless things had changed. They probably hadn't but for all Emma knew things could be very different.

She had to get back to her son. Now.

"How did he stay sane in here if you had him for a year?" she asked eyeing the bars with her eyes. Already she was going cross eyed just looking at them and touching them she supposed was not a good idea. Even if there wasn't magic surrounding them they did look very sharp.

"I don't think he didn't manage it." David said finally looking almost unconcerned. "But, Emma you have to understand he had been the Dark One since before your great-grandfather was born. For years and God knows there were rumours swirling around that he had lost his wife and child to a pirate…well…I don't know weather or not they were true but…somehow I doubt Gold has ever been truly, wholly sane."

Emma took that into consideration and concluded that he was probably right but she was not going to tell him that.

As it happened she didn't have to because at that moment Cora choose to appear in all her glittery glory. Emma also took a second to conclude that as far as the two were concerned Regina could make more of an entrance. There was a pause where she stood there and then something moved out of the shadows and her heart almost froze when she saw who it was.

Hook.

Well, she had always suspected that she was going to pay for that decision didn't she? Looks like the debt had finally come in.

* * *

"No I wouldn't have" was all Hook said to Emma. His eyes were burning with something that David couldn't put his fingers on and it was something so terrible and so real at the same time that Emma had to look away. He watched as Hook's expression became like flint and stone again and then he was off down the dark tunnel following Cora because she was the only way he could get his revenge when David supposed had Emma not done what she did they might be halfway home by now on his ship.

He knew that was what she was thinking because it was the more logical conclusion that he had drawn too which meant that Emma had come to it as well.

"Don't" he said carefully as he moved next to her as they were sat together on the damn dark stone (if they ever came back here he was going to have something done about these places—they looked so much worse here on the inside than they had ever done on the inside).

"Don't blame yourself. You did what you had to do at the time. God knows he's not perfect, he's the very definition of a threat if ever I saw one. You did what you had to do Emma don't reproach yourself for it. This is just a setback we have to go through and then we will get our happy ending"

"That" Emma said through gritted teeth. "Is so naïve it makes me sick"

David nodded even though the words made his whole body flinch and he had to physically stop himself from flinching away from her. Emma was angry and more to the point Emma was hurt and therefore it was no good for him to turn a throwaway comment about the fact that all he had was hope left to cling to into something that it wasn't.

Hope was the currency that he and his wife had traded in for so long that they didn't know how else to deal with these situations and he could almost smile for that one because Emma who had, had a hard lesson and a hard life when it came to hope clearly didn't believe in it at all.

But that was alright, because he and Snow could help their daughter believe again. She was halfway there after all. She did at the very least believe in the curse and in magic and three days ago that was a different story entirely.

Or had it been longer than that? Gods above how had he managed to tell the time in this life without a watch. Somethings he really couldn't see himself living without and that was going to prove problematic if they did decided eventually to come back home and rebuild their kingdom then there was going to be a real issue attached to it.

"Emma" he said gently deciding again to be brave and slid his arm around his daughter. "I promise you were are going to find a way out of here and to the lake and then if I have to personally stay here to guarantee it then I am going to get you back to Henry and your mother"

There was a pause as Emma looked at him and then her face seemed to crumple. With a flash he saw what would have been his daughter as a hopelessly lost child and that just made him grit his teeth and hate Regina more than he had ever done.

And that was saying something.

Emma gazed at him a second longer and then rested her head on his shoulder letting her legs rest collapse down into the dirt. David held her close for a second.

"I just wanted a second chance to be Henry's mother" she said finally. Aurora was awake now and sitting up, Mulan helping her to her feet and Emma dropped her voice down a notch determined it seemed to not give away this conversation. David nodded understanding (how could he not?) what she wanted.

"I know" he said quietly. He would have given anything for a second chance to be with her.

"I know Emma, I know. But…but I promise you that I will get you back to him. We will get back to our family one way or another"

He didn't tell her that all he had ever wanted was a second chance to be a father with her. Those thoughts were too raw and painful for him to do anything about them. It didn't matter. Not now anyway. Not to tell her.

He had to be it for her. He had to act like a parent and for as long as she wanted him, David was Emma's father for life.

* * *

 **And there it is, I hope you enjoy it and let me know what you think.**

 **Next Chapter-As they head to the woods of the dead, Emma realises that finally she has faith in her parents and beings to accept the role that they now play in her life. Also David makes a decision that might cause more harm than good. **


	8. A Grain Of Deception

**Hi, so here is another chapter, there are only two more chapters left and again this chapter is more about dialogue rather than action unlike other chapters and the next one.**

 **Disclaimer-Nothing is mine.**

 **Please Read and Review.**

 **And let me know what you think and i will try to update sooner rather than later so please stay tuned.**

* * *

Unguarded Moments

Chapter 8-A Grain Of Deception

As they head through the woods of the dead to the lake which hopefully will take them home Emma comes to accept that she thinks of David as her father and the role that her new faith in her parents will come to play in her life. Meanwhile David makes a decision (for himself) that might cause more harm than good for his new family.

* * *

They were walking through the woods towards the lake. Mulan silent and seething next to Emma who was resolutely not looking at him and there was the fact that she was could now see Henry and the image was always going to be with Regina standing there behind him. David suspected that his wife was doing all she could do to stop it from happening but the town would be in tatters. As was this world, both of their worlds were falling apart and twisting time and time again in the wind. This had been their home—this land had been where both of them had grown up and where both of them had been educated and met each other and lived and loved with each other.

So many other people had gone through the same cycle and had managed to build a life for themselves and they had lost so much. Not just his family, not just his friends and his adversaries but the ordinary people too, the families who had woken up one day and realised that the kids they were raising were not their kids or that they were different people than what they had thought or that the events that were taken there in their lives were not real. All of it had been a sham and David at the very least had slept through a lot of the boring drudgery and had not had to live under Regina's thumb.

So what did they do? He and his wife had each other, they had Emma, they would soon be with Henry. Did they try and live as a family? Did they do it in Storybrooke or did they come back here and try and rebuild this shattered land. Do they take their people home again? Did the people that had followed them so blindly and so trustingly the first time believing that their cause was good and just and fair even want to do it again? And then there was always the other question—how did you stop Regina if Henry couldn't see the only way that she could be stopped was to be killed? Dungeons didn't work on people like her and Gold, they had barely worked the first time and the only reason that he had not skipped out to join his former pupil was because he was playing a longer game than David had realised at the time. Exile wouldn't work either because sooner or later Regina would have her magic and certainly if Cora had anything to say about it she would also have her mother back on her side. All in all that was a powerful and dangerous concoction where a lot of things could go horribly wrong for them.

And then there was the other unspeakable question. What to do if Emma said no? For Emma could say no. She could say that she didn't want to come with them and that she didn't want them in her life, hell she had that right because even though they were together now his daughter was like a book that had been sealed shut and bound up so tight you could never get all of the pages open. Emma was difficult to read and David who studied his daughter like she was the very air he breathed (and on some days she was) didn't know how to broach the subject of living in this realm full time and giving up the creature comforts that she had been used too since birth.

But he wanted to be here. God this was his home. His mother was buried here, his brother was buried here, good men and women who had stood by him and his wife and given their lives for them had been buried here. They had took oaths together that they would love each other and love this land and this people and protect it to the best of their efforts and in nine months they had failed and they had barely been married.

But he also wanted to be with his family. He wanted to be with Emma and Henry and his wife and also wanted to be with the land and the people that needed his help. This was his home and he had only been in Storybrooke a short time and that time had been filled with nothing but hurt and confusion and pain for both him and his wife and he knew that that he could do more good here than he could do with the land which he was good at when his wife was ruling and be a better father and grandfather here than he could be here rather than in Storybrooke where even the outside world had been cruel to his daughter.

And it was also a bit of calculation for him as well he thought as he was walking through the undergrowth. Here he had a better battleground rather than in the town where Regina knew all the tricks and turns. He could keep his family safer hear and to himself, and who knew…he and Snow where young enough, they could have another child, they could have the family that they always even though it was a bit later than they had wanted. They could give Emma a family and she would never have to worry again. Perhaps he would never have to worry again—at least here he knew the terrain so that he knew how to avoid a confrontation and he also was getting tired of worrying about Regina. He wanted peace. He wanted his family. He wanted his wife and he wanted to go home. This was his home.

Just how did he tell Emma that?

"Hey" she said coming up behind him so fast that he nearly jumped a foot in the air. Her face was white and he knew the strange food, the walking, the sheer determination and the worry were all catching up with her. Soon they would get to the lake and soon they would be home though how long they were there remained up for discussion it seemed.

"Hi" he said a smile on his face. He never showed some of the worry on his face and the conflict that he was feeling, he never showed the exhaustion that was beginning to creep in. His body had been battered both before the curse and after it and there had been perhaps too much take out pizza for him to be completely comfortable. However, David ensured that for his daughter he always had a smile on his face and he was ready to answer any questions she might ask.

"Are we nearly there?" she asked and not for the first time David took in the bags under her eyes that were growing darker and darker in each night that they were stuck here.

"Nearly" David said reaching out and touching her arm. He wanted to throw an arm around her and hug her but he knew her enough to know that Emma would shy away from the contact and she swallowed looking though the trees.

"I hope so" was all she said.

It was a grain of deception and calculation that made him not tell her of his plans as they walked through the woods and then as if the memories had found him, he could see the lake, the lake where he and Snow had been separated and he had, had to fight the siren and he had realised that he loved her, where he and Snow had been married and his mother had died shortly afterwards. Where Snow had told him her believe that one day they were going to have a child. And now here they were. They were stood there the child and him and David was damn well going to find a way back to the apartment where right now he could imagine his wife cooking for their grandson and telling him to have hope that his mother and grandpa would return and soon.

But it was a grain of deception anyway and it was that thought that kept him walking towards the still barren lake.

* * *

Emma shot a look at her father as he and Mulan stood forwards and then walked down the worn road from the trees to the sand where the lake (or what had once been a lake) had been and she stood there taking it in. There was going to be a strong chance that they were going home tonight and Emma needed to make sure that she was because she knew only one thing and that was that she was not coming back to this realm ever again unless she could help it.

But she couldn't help but look forwards to going back to that warm little kitchen even if she didn't know what the hell she was going to do when it came to her mother that had once been her best friend, even as she didn't know what the hell she was going to do with Regina or Gold. The little kitchen had been the first home that she had ever had since she had been with Neal and his arms had been around her and they had talked and laughed about the open world while they had been in the bed of some shitty motel that didn't check that they had moved in.

But it was Henry most of all that kept her moving. It was her son who kept her putting one foot in front of the other and she felt her knee buckle a little as she carried on. How David was going to pull this off she had no idea but he was like a man possessed by a dream this morning when they had woken up cold on the hard ground where they had managed to grab a couple of hours sleep. A bed, a hot meal, a hot bath and probably a visit to anyone who could give her a deep tissue massage because there was something pulling in her lower back that she was pretty sure was not normal.

There was a pause where she considered sitting down on the sand as David began to prowl around what the lake's edges would have been but if she'd have sat down then she would have seriously struggled to keep up. She was hungry and tired and thirsty and she smelled and there was something that made her want to cry in the air. This land was desolate and empty and she wanted to do nothing than get away from the very barren air. She wanted to go home to life. To her son. To her parents.

What was she going to do then was another question, she had no idea how to live a life with parents in them. Hell she had barely just gotten to learn what her life was like when she had a child, she knew about putting Henry before everything that came her way but she didn't know, Emma had never known what it was like to have people who did that for her and the one time she had—or thought she had it had ended up with her in prison and pregnant.

Emma tried to swallow but her throat was dry. She tried to think about what was happening right now instead of what would happen when she got home but she couldn't help but admit if only to herself that she had been struggling with the knowledge that she had faith, faith finally for the first time in her life that her parents would have her back—or at the very least her father.

And where did that leave her one wonders?

She stood up then because the old instincts were strong and she knew when someone was watching her weather it be danger or lust or fear, she knew that someone was watching her and she knew with the old instinct that danger surely would follow.

She stood up brushing sand down from her jeans and touched her father's arm blindly without even reaching for him. He was there, he was always there she noted but her eyes were still on the treeline.

It took her a second before she saw it, the flash of dark leather amongst the trees and the swish and glitter of a gown.

"There here" she whispered and David understood immediately what she was saying his hand going straight towards his gun and the other scanning the treeline. Even Mulan caught their expressions furious with them as she was and came over.

And then they were waiting. Waiting for what would come of that Emma was sure of and for her waiting for the smiles that she knew she would get when she came home to the town that she called home. Her son's innocent beam, the gentle smile of her friend who was now apparently her mother and who knew? Perhaps the crooked smile and the gleam in the eye was associated with the very pirate that was lurking in the trees.

* * *

 **And there you go i hope you enjoy this chapter and let me know what you think.**

 **Next Chapter-Emma, David, Hook and Cora face off at the lake in a last ditch effort in order to get to Storybrooke.**


	9. Jump Then Fall

**Hi, so here is the penultimate chapter of this story. it is a short one as we wound to a close and it is AU but the next chapter will be the last one and then this story will be at the end.**

 **Disclaimer-Nothing is mine just this chapter.**

 **Please Read and Review**

 **And i will endeavour to update sooner rather than later with the final chapter.**

* * *

Unguarded Moments

Chapter 9-Jump Then Fall

Emma, David, Cora and Hook face off at the lake in a last ditch effort to get home to Storybrooke.

* * *

David had fought many a war with his wife who'd had the benefits of being taught by some of the great tacticians of the ages and he had seen battles between them and Regina, Gold and even King George. He had seen battles go sideways and had on more than one occasion thrown his wife into the saddle thrown himself into one and then they had both flung themselves on horses and away from the mess before they could be captured. He had been a Prince and a General and he had seen many a battle and a war and yet there was none that he had seen that were as clear cut as this one.

This was a straight battle between him and Cora and his daughter and Hook. Mulan was at best an ally but given a chance to go to Aurora she would. Twice now she had tried to betray them so she could fulfil her vow or whatever and David didn't like how that made him feel. Mulan gave them some support granted but very little and he would rather focus on the immediate problem. Cora. Cora was going to be the thing that stopped them if something stopped them. This was the woman who had given birth to one of the two most powerful practitioners of magic that had ever lived in this realm.

This was not going to be a fun or an easy battle to win.

But he was prepared for it. Thank God he was prepared for it.

He gripped his sword a little bit tighter. Saw Emma load her gun and waited. They were not going to be the people who made the first move. Thank all the Gods above that fighting with a sword was something you never forgot to do. It really was in a way like riding a bike, once the knowledge was ingrained, it never left you.

They came out of the shadows of the treeline first and it so quick that David very nearly didn't see it. But he did and he thanked whoever it was looking down on him for seeing it because he was able to grab Emma who was still looking around by the scruff of her jacket and push her down just as the first fireball whizzed past her head.

It had been Regina's moniker and probably once upon a time her plan for Snow. What a surprise, she had learnt it from her mother. The oldest trick in the magic book. He would have almost laughed had Hook not hit him from the side and sent him sprawling on his ass. There was a pause where he tried to rebalance and then with a glee that he should not have felt he found his footing and booted Hook in the stomach with all the force he could muster.

And that he told himself was his petty revenge for that time the dratted pirate had winked at his daughter and then gone up the beanstalk with her his eyes on her backside rather than on the goal of getting the compass.

Well it was nice he thought to himself, that even in his head he could still defend his daughters honour somewhat even if she didn't want it. He could dwell on the fact that he had clearly missed out on the whole no dating until your thirty cliché some other time when he wasn't fighting for his life.

Hook was sent sprawling and he turned to duck another fireball. All he had to do was to get the ashes away from Cora. Mulan it seemed had already gone and David did not blame her. This was not her fight it was theirs and she had gone to find her friend and start a life for her. David would have wished her luck but he was too busy ducking another fireball.

Emma was sword fighting with Hook. She had picked up his discarded blade which literally left him with hers which was short and curved in a style that had not been popular when he had been at war and therefore he was at a disadvantage of using. Damn. He ducked another fireball and used the sheen of the sword to send one away. It was only when Emma booted Hook again clear across the lake and then lunged at Cora that they managed to get the ashes.

There was a pause where nobody seemed to speak at the appearance of water. This was it, this was a portal to their way home out of this place and back to their family and their home life and this was the chance that he and Emma needed. They could come back here at some point as a family but they had to get that family up and running so to speak and functioning. To that they had to get home.

But his seconds hesitation at the glee that had coursed through him when he had seen what his daughter had done had cost him dear. With a blast of magic that felt like a cannonball and had much the same texture to him as catching one in the stomach he fell backwards as Cora with all the skill of a predator who had seen the fact that he was weak and was going in for the kill.

But before she could do the trick that had made her daughter one of the most notorious mass murderers this land had ever seen something or most likely someone had dove in front of her and David could only watch in horror his throat trying to desperately work as his brain screamed out his pain and fear and anguish at the very sight.

Emma was thrown back her hair sliding over her red leather jacket as Cora's hands groped around her chest looking for her heart. David staggered to his feet. He had seen Regina do this before and he knew when it was done well and when it wasn't and as much as it hurt him to think about it he knew that realistically his daughter should be dead by now or at the very least a slave to Regina's mother.

But something had gone wrong. Emma's heart was still firmly lodged in her chest and the noise of the clashing of magic or whatever it was that was tying these two women together but he did hear Emma say something about love and he had to smile. If she was talking about him which for all he knew it could be then he felt warm inside in a way that he had only ever felt once for a fleeting second and that had been when Snow had passed him his baby. Of course there was a very good chance that in fact she was talking about her son but David could take a millisecond to enjoy the moment.

Again the time seemed to slow. He was hardly aware of Hook gathering himself and reaching for his feet. He was hardly aware of the portal emitting small sparks as if it was clear to all that something was wrong…that something was happening on the other side that did not bode well, all he cared about was his daughter who with a shout that didn't seem to come from her blasted backwards and hit the ground the force of whatever magic had gripped her in that moment (and for all he knew Gold had been right about that True Love magic stuff he'd spouted years ago in a time that felt like yesterday). The same was said of Cora who too went staggering backwards looking shocked.

David didn't waste anytime. He was not a man to do that. Never had he wasted time and this was not the first time that he had ran from a battle. He grabbed Emma by the elbow and then with a hard yank he dragged her towards the still spitting portal before Cora or Hook could regain themselves. Her hand found his and she turned to him a grin illuminating her face that made her look so much like her mother that David almost forgot why he was here and what he was supposed to be doing.

And then for the second time in God knows how many days Emma fell through the portal and David for the second time in the same amount of days jumped through it after her.

After all following his daughter had gotten them this far.

He just hoped that Cora and Hook would not be able to follow, both this way and any other way that followed.

And then his body hit solid ground with a large bang and once again he concluded that weather he was a prince or a knight or a volunteer who worked with animals or a husband or a father—any and all of those things—he was really getting too old for this.

He blacked out to the sound of what he hoped was his wife calling his name.

* * *

Emma's body when it fell felt like it had been wrapped around a pole, in her car. Every bone ached in a way that several trips to the spa were not going to solve and she forced herself to keep her eyes shut least she open them and start blubbing like a little baby. She was not some sort of helpless sap. She was the saviour for all intents and purposes, as Henry had put it, the one who would bring back the happy endings and she forced herself to open her eyes again once she thought she had herself under control.

They were in a forest and it was a mark of how similar the two worlds that Regina had made all but single handed and destroyed at the same time—that she did not know which world she was in. The trees in the Enchanted Forest looked the same as the ones in Storybrooke and she took a second to take in the fact that there was no sand under her or pirates making rude innuendo's or Regina's insane relatives throwing fire at her head.

She turned to see David lying flat on his back some way away from her. She staggered on her knees and then had to sit back down again feeling like she had that graduation where she had gotten wasted and then pickpocketed her way onto the rides at the local fairground until she had thrown up and been too dizzy to do anything about it.

David was breathing and that was a good sign and as she crawled over to him she saw that he had the compass in his hand. Good. Cora and Hook would have a hard time finding this town (even if they did still have the means to come to this world) without that.

She thought she saw someone looking and she turned to see Gold standing by the fountain. For a second she thought that perhaps everything was frozen in time. There was no Regina or Henry or her mother and she thought that when she had come through the portal the magic swirling around her had given her an inkling of her mother and Regina fighting their voices raised and both it seemed with good points.

Gold stared at her for a second and then smiled that long, slow smile that made him look like the Crocodile, Hook claimed he was. And then he was gone.

Footsteps were coming closer and there were shouts, words and names and faces and voices that sounded dear to her but her head was still pounding and she felt like she was going to be sick. Everything it seemed was catching up with her, the exhaustion, the lack of food and water, the physical capabilities, not to mention the emotional upheaval she had been through and she took in a second to watch her Dad's chest rise and fall before she turned to see her roommate turned mother running through the trees towards them.

Ah good Emma thought, her mother was here.

And then she collapsed into a dead faint her head being propped up by her unconscious father's arm.

* * *

 **And there you are i hope you enjoyed and let me know what you thought but let me know what you think of the final chapter when it arrives.**

 **Next Chapter-The final chapter-Emma and David wake up in Storybrooke and attempt to piece together their lives post their adventure in the Enchanted Forest. Meanwhile new dangers are just across the horizon.**


	10. Family First

**Hi, so here is the final chapter of this story!**

 **This has been a fun little short story to write and I hope you all enjoy this, there are other OUAT stories on my list and in the works right now so I am not going to disappear, I hope you all have loved this story.**

 **Thank you all so much for your kind reviews that have kept me going, Enjoy.**

 **Disclaimer-Nothing is mine.**

 **And for the final time please read and review.**

* * *

Unguarded Moments

Chapter 10-Family First

The final chapter-Emma and David wake up in Storybrooke and attempt to piece together their lives, post their adventure in the Enchanted Forest. Meanwhile new dangers are just across the horizon.

* * *

When Emma woke up her eyes were heavy and she had what she thought might be a brutal hangover only to realise that she'd had nothing to drink. There was a pause as she tried to move her eyelids and she forced them open with what she thought was an effort unlike anything she had every done before with the exception of childbirth. Once she opened her eyes however she felt the need to slam them shut again and pretend that she had not seen anything least of all her mother…her friend…her son's teacher once upon a time a long time ago (or so if felt) when in reality it was only a week or so ago.

She slammed them shut taking another deep breath. She was not prepared for this. David, her Dad had been bad enough and even then they had been bonded by a common desire to see their family, to get home to Henry and Mary Margaret and to stop whatever it was that Regina would have been planning. It had been the only way that she had managed to keep her shit together in the Enchanted Forest long enough for her to do any good.

She risked another peek. Her…mother…was apparently marking something for school. Emma supposed it was nice to know that somethings didn't change in a world that had changed overnight. She took a deep breathe and tried to pass it off as sleeping though she doubted she succeeded. Suddenly the courage that she had been gripping tightly with both hands during the Enchanted Forest disappeared. She had no idea how to deal with her mother. She'd had some idea about how to deal with her father but she had no idea how she was going to tackle this relationship. At best with David he had been before the curse had been someone that she had not liked all that much, he had hurt her friend and cost her more than she had admitted at the time.

Mary Margaret on the other hand was not what you would call a person she had not liked at all. She had been her friend and her companion, the first one in a long time, the first person in a long time that she had trusted. They had talked about more than boys and gossiped about more than Regina and Henry, Emma had told this woman about her life in the system and about her life in prison, when she was pregnant with Henry, even the few scant details she could bring herself to part with when it came to the topic of her child's father. All of this, this woman knew and she didn't know how to bring back her walls up when it came to her after letting them down brick by brick in front of her alter ego.

She didn't even know if she wanted to.

Emma sighed and wished she could turn over in her sleep so at least she didn't have to feel the woman's eyes on her for a second longer than it was essential but she had a feeling that even if she didn't turn away Mary Margaret…no…Snow White would still stare at her with those kind, wide eyes and just wait until she was going to talk.

She should have really just dragged Henry back into the car that night kicking and screaming if she had too. A kidnapping charge might have took care of all this turmoil or at least she would be somewhere away from this with her son.

And it was the image of Henry that forced her to open her eyes and sit up steadfastly ignoring (or at the very least doing what she knew to be an admirable job) the way her mother dropped her papers to the floor and beamed as if she had been waiting for this for a while.

Dimly she was aware that there was something nice about her mother (if that was what she was now) waiting by her bedside for her to wake up from her exhaustion and adrenaline crash. It was what real mothers did she remembered from the few friends in High School that she had stick around.

"Where's Henry?" she asked getting to the crux of the matter first and accepting the bottle of water that she almost downed in two gulps. She was thirsty, so thirsty and the water was so chilled and cold it almost hurt her teeth after all the lukewarm possibly infected river water she had drank on the way to the lake.

"He's in school. He didn't want to go but I made him, it's better for him to come home to a family that's had a chance to talk things through don't you think? Your err…your father went to…pick him up, he woke up an hour before you did and he was desperate to stretch his legs and get some time to be with his grandson so…yeah" she finished that little speech somewhat lamely and then waiting as if she was desperate to hear Emma's speech even if she knew it wasn't going to be nice and friendly. Emma paused, she wasn't sure weather or not she wanted to speak. She didn't know what she felt. Certainly she didn't know what to make of her father…her father who had once been the man who had hurt her friend wanting to spend time with her son.

"Regina?" Emma asked ignoring the question and the look of hurt on her mother's face as she took in the disinterest (or so it had appeared) on her face.

"In the wind. She claims she is trying to not use magic and the news that her mother was still alive shocked her and Gold and that was believable. Henry wants her to stop and she did in a way, she stopped Gold from destroying the portal and you and your father were able to come through. Maybe she's changed, I don't know. She does seem to love Henry if that's anything and she doesn't want to hurt him."

Emma took that in and then nodded.

She wanted to ask what had really happened back then, hear her mother's side of the story but the truth of the matter was that if she heard her mother's side of the story then she was going to have to hear Regina's side and Emma wasn't sure if she could do that without wrapping her hands around her throat and not letting go until the last threat to her son was dead. Gold was immaterial, Hook was immaterial, Regina was most certainly not.

Instead she decided to ask another question and it was a more pressing physical one rather than an emotional one, the emotional ones could wait. This one could not. After a week or so of barely surviving (though she suspected she had shed more than a few pounds in the process) she found that she was desperate to sink her teeth into something that wasn't part anything.

"Please tell me you got food cooking"

Mary Margaret laughed, her face transformed by a warmth that she had not seen for a long time. She paused taking it in and then had to look away when it became too much.

Baby steps and all.

"I've got some soup and some fresh bread and a load of butter on the stove ready for you when your Dad and your son get home. But first I thought you might like a shower and a change of clothes"

Emma nodded swinging her legs of the bed and standing up.

"Thank you" she said finally. "It might not be much but thank you, for keeping him safe"

And then she was up and out of bed before she could turn around and see her mother's smile the same as it had been when she had been her friend.

* * *

David came through the door of their house, their apartment to see his wife spooning soup into bowls.

"Your Mom just got out of the shower and she's upstairs" His wife said with a smile.

Henry gave a roar of approval mixed with glee and then shot up the stairs. David watched his wife close her eyes and then wince slightly and knew it was about the fact that her hardwood floors where being bashed about by a ten year old running around with his shoes on.

There was a pause where he stood there taking in the sight of his wife and she smiled back her eyes greedily roaming over her. The moment between the two of them lasted forever and seemed to stretch on forever before his daughter came down her wet hair wrapped up In a ponytail and dressed in a loose pair of leggings and blue jumper and fuzzy socks.

His wife began passing bowls around as Henry came down and Emma took three slices of bread and good chunk of butter and began eating with the gusto that came with someone who had not ate in the last week or so (or at least not ate food that she saw as food).

He took his bowl of his wife and noticed that she was in the same predicament that he had been in, in which when it came to his daughter she couldn't take her eyes of her. Their child who had survived so much…who had lived and lost so much without them there to guide her and she was able to stand there and eat and smile and listen to her son as if none of them had ever been parted as a family before. There was a pause where they both sat there and took in their daughter in all her incredible glory and then David turned back to his soup because if he was being honest with himself he was starving.

Henry went to bed straight after dinner claiming he was tired and wanted to do his homework in the privacy of the room that Emma had claimed when she had moved in. Apparently there was a bed on the floor but David suspected that Emma who had left her son not nearly seven hours after he had recovered from a magical poisoning wouldn't be letting him out of her sight anytime soon.

Emma turned back to her bread buttering another slice with all the gusto of someone who had (he suspected) grown up a system where food had not been some kind of priority for some people.

"Emma, do you want to talk?" His wife asked and David turned his face down to his soup and wondered weather or not that was the right way to take things with his daughter. Emma had been struggling to deal with the knowledge of what had happened to her life when she had seen magic for the first time. He had no idea how she was going to react to his wife and her hopeful approach that everything was going to be ok as long as they could keep an open and honest dialogue between them.

Emma put down her spoon and she took a breath. David found he was holding his.

"Not right now" she said finally. "I have a lot of questions and I have a lot of things that I need to say but right now all I want to say is that I am tired and I want to go to bed and that…" And then she turned to him so fast that he thought that she might gain whiplash. "Unguarded moments and all, thank you for helping me get through this…Dad…"

He had to look away at that. It was one of the first times that he had been called that name and though he was not a man to be overcome by an emotional moment he found he was blinking back tears.

"Your welcome kiddo" he said finally.

Emma nodded and said her goodnights but dithered by the stairs.

"Baby steps" was all she said and then she was gone.

His wife found his hand and her smile was glorious.

"It's been a good night Charming, let's go to bed"

And for this night he knew that his daughter was safe and that she was with his grandson and the threat was at bay for this golden night. So he linked his hand wit his wife and followed her to bed unable to stop the smile on his face.

Because Charming, David Nolan…was a husband, a father and a grandfather.

And for that night, all was good in the world.

* * *

 **And let me know what you thought, I hope you have enjoyed this story, see you soon. **


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